"There are also those ˹hypocrites˺ who set up a mosque ˹only˺ to cause harm, promote disbelief, divide the believers, and as a base for those who had previously fought against Allah and His Messenger.1 They will definitely swear, “We intended nothing but good,” but Allah bears witness that they are surely liars.
Do not ˹O Prophet˺ ever pray in it. Certainly, a mosque founded on righteousness from the first day is more worthy of your prayers. In it are men who love to be purified.1 And Allah loves those who purify themselves
Which is better: those who laid the foundation of their building on the fear and pleasure of Allah, or those who did so on the edge of a crumbling cliff that tumbled down with them into the Fire of Hell? And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people. 107-110
This clearly tells that THE criteria for mosque is 'TAQWA, rest can be sorted.
There's a masjid near me that has an opaque ownership structure (unclear if it's a nonprofit, privately owned, etc.), and it's run by the same small group of people, all of one ethnicity, who founded it a few decades ago. There's no elections, no committees, no real way to get involved.
It used to be a great masjid, with great programming, events, children's classes, dynamic imam. We loved going there.
Then things took a turn for the worse and now there's basically no programming, no events, no imam, not even a functioning website. The community has gotten much more diverse in the meantime (the original ethnic group is a minority in the masjid now), but it's still being run by the same people, some of whom don't even come regularly outside of jummah.
I pitch in a few dollars here and there because they're providing a place to pray, but I would never make a significant donation.
I guess this doesn't directly answer your question because it's not a great masjid currently, but my larger point is that if a masjid is unaccountable to the community, it might be great now, but it could nosedive and there'll be nothing you can do about it, so decide your donations accordingly.
The most baffling aspect of this is the ignorance of the Shar`i aspect of all this. Once some ground is consecrated as a House of God, it belongs to God in perpetuity. For any human being to pretend to exercise usufruct over it is a grave sin and an affront to God, who ought to be considered (by Muslims) to be the direct legal owner.
Most no -profits are non-profit only in the tax sense. That is, their religious non-profit status saves on taxes and scrutiny by regulatory agencies. The status dies not imply that they are not making money and spending it.
Mega churches and now masajid have questionable financial practices.
Asa. Ideally the gentleman or gentle woman would place the land into a waqf for the benefit of the community....for as long into perpetuity as the locale might allow. And If he or she is not willing, why? Do they have other plans? Are they seeking a profit? Then they should be transparent about their reasons. And more than likely that would have a negative effect on community morale, I know it would have so on my own if I knew my masjid was under exploitation for private interest, I'd probably look for a another masjid....
Both scenarios need a separation of land owners or property owners and organization owners. The property owner must lease out the place to the masjid and the masjid must claim that as an expense to collect donations against.
You have some private inurement and private benefit problems if that happens ( it may happen, the IRS is mostly asleep in nonprofit enforcement especially for religious organizations)
We in Houston have been bitten by both corporate conglomerates and small private masajid.
The key is to not go overboard.
We don’t need huge masjid complexes and chandeliers as prerequisites for building masajid.
There should be accountability and transparency, whoever is in charge.
We have also been bitten by US Senate like election campaigns where the criminal records of distant relatives and previous divorces and bankruptcies have become campaign essentials.
There should be Democratic elections with strict adherence to Islamic adab.
Just because a property owner opens their property up as a Masjid does not mean that they are not benefiting from the project. They actually may be making money from the whole thing while at the same time claiming that they are opening their place up for the sake of Allah. There is nothing wrong with that as long as they are open about it. They are providing the service and making a profit from them at the same time, and profit, as you know, is halal in Islam. But don't say that they are doing it for some charitable cause while gaining no personal benefit. For me, transparency is most important. Whether the operation is for profit or nonprofit, the books should always be open for all to scrutinize. If we are asked to give to a particular cause then we have a right to know how the money donated is being dispersed. I too attend a small masjid and I give on a regular basis through automatic withdrawal from my account. But I'm also very much aware that there is some mismanagement (not dishonesty, but just some unwise choices in my opinion) that I don't agree with so I limit how much I give and instead I give in other ways, such as in my time and some of the supplies that are needed in the Masjid. The presidents of all masjids should be elected by general consensus, but this rarely takes place. And there should be term limits on the position of president.
Profit may be halal, but turning the faith into a business isn’t. A masjid is an amanat and should be governed as such. A masjid cannot be used as a business to generate profits for an owner. Leave the prosperity gospel to the Christians, it has no place in Islam.
Well lots of Muslims sell books, clothing, halal things, and then recorded video courses. Shuyukh can get five figures for giving speeches at nonprofit masajid. Some of the profiting from faith stuff is quite garish looking prosperity gospel type stuff https://www.visionaireramadan.com/destiny?el=fbdu
Why is it different from Muslims personally profiting from the venue for prayer space where all these other people are also profiting in some way?
We begin by drawing it at turning masajid into profit generators for private owners. The nations who came before us were condemned for this. This is what the Pharisees from Banu Israel did and Allah cursed them for this amongst other crimes. For the other examples you give, it requires ijtihad, but I will say many who are involved in such a livlihood may be seen to be doing good but with Allah lies the judgement. It is good that you are raising these questions because they need to be answered. Unfortunately I can only answer a part of them and even my answers raise more questions. I think volumes could be written on this topic alone.
Personal benefit is a fuzzy concept. Some of it violates tax law. Other benefits, being considered a community leader, mingling with the mayor or police chief at events, or even using it as a platform from which to launch a political campaign are all kind of normal.
One of the comments here points to the messes that can happen in election systems. Campaigns can be ugly, personal and can harm families and communities. I suppose it is possible to institute vetting and ethics rules, but for a big enough organization Muslim leaders playing dirty is an inherent risk?
I dont think it matters. For profit or non-profit when we donate its for a specific purpose. If that purpose is to keep the masjid going, if it continues to be an asset to the community it doesn't matter if it's a for profit. In fact I think we need more for profit organizations.
Profit may be halal, but turning the faith into a business isn’t. A masjid is an amanat and should be governed as such. A masjid cannot be used as a business to generate profits for an owner. Leave the prosperity gospel to the Christians, it has no place in Islam. If you do, you need to re-examine your faith or your understanding of it.
How about succession? If the owner dies, and the children or widow want to turn the place into a giant car wash, your donations to help build the place goes to that, you okay with that?
In Surah Taubah Allah says (translation)
"There are also those ˹hypocrites˺ who set up a mosque ˹only˺ to cause harm, promote disbelief, divide the believers, and as a base for those who had previously fought against Allah and His Messenger.1 They will definitely swear, “We intended nothing but good,” but Allah bears witness that they are surely liars.
Do not ˹O Prophet˺ ever pray in it. Certainly, a mosque founded on righteousness from the first day is more worthy of your prayers. In it are men who love to be purified.1 And Allah loves those who purify themselves
Which is better: those who laid the foundation of their building on the fear and pleasure of Allah, or those who did so on the edge of a crumbling cliff that tumbled down with them into the Fire of Hell? And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people. 107-110
This clearly tells that THE criteria for mosque is 'TAQWA, rest can be sorted.
There's a masjid near me that has an opaque ownership structure (unclear if it's a nonprofit, privately owned, etc.), and it's run by the same small group of people, all of one ethnicity, who founded it a few decades ago. There's no elections, no committees, no real way to get involved.
It used to be a great masjid, with great programming, events, children's classes, dynamic imam. We loved going there.
Then things took a turn for the worse and now there's basically no programming, no events, no imam, not even a functioning website. The community has gotten much more diverse in the meantime (the original ethnic group is a minority in the masjid now), but it's still being run by the same people, some of whom don't even come regularly outside of jummah.
I pitch in a few dollars here and there because they're providing a place to pray, but I would never make a significant donation.
I guess this doesn't directly answer your question because it's not a great masjid currently, but my larger point is that if a masjid is unaccountable to the community, it might be great now, but it could nosedive and there'll be nothing you can do about it, so decide your donations accordingly.
The most baffling aspect of this is the ignorance of the Shar`i aspect of all this. Once some ground is consecrated as a House of God, it belongs to God in perpetuity. For any human being to pretend to exercise usufruct over it is a grave sin and an affront to God, who ought to be considered (by Muslims) to be the direct legal owner.
Most no -profits are non-profit only in the tax sense. That is, their religious non-profit status saves on taxes and scrutiny by regulatory agencies. The status dies not imply that they are not making money and spending it.
Mega churches and now masajid have questionable financial practices.
Asa. Ideally the gentleman or gentle woman would place the land into a waqf for the benefit of the community....for as long into perpetuity as the locale might allow. And If he or she is not willing, why? Do they have other plans? Are they seeking a profit? Then they should be transparent about their reasons. And more than likely that would have a negative effect on community morale, I know it would have so on my own if I knew my masjid was under exploitation for private interest, I'd probably look for a another masjid....
Both scenarios need a separation of land owners or property owners and organization owners. The property owner must lease out the place to the masjid and the masjid must claim that as an expense to collect donations against.
You have some private inurement and private benefit problems if that happens ( it may happen, the IRS is mostly asleep in nonprofit enforcement especially for religious organizations)
We in Houston have been bitten by both corporate conglomerates and small private masajid.
The key is to not go overboard.
We don’t need huge masjid complexes and chandeliers as prerequisites for building masajid.
There should be accountability and transparency, whoever is in charge.
We have also been bitten by US Senate like election campaigns where the criminal records of distant relatives and previous divorces and bankruptcies have become campaign essentials.
There should be Democratic elections with strict adherence to Islamic adab.
Just because a property owner opens their property up as a Masjid does not mean that they are not benefiting from the project. They actually may be making money from the whole thing while at the same time claiming that they are opening their place up for the sake of Allah. There is nothing wrong with that as long as they are open about it. They are providing the service and making a profit from them at the same time, and profit, as you know, is halal in Islam. But don't say that they are doing it for some charitable cause while gaining no personal benefit. For me, transparency is most important. Whether the operation is for profit or nonprofit, the books should always be open for all to scrutinize. If we are asked to give to a particular cause then we have a right to know how the money donated is being dispersed. I too attend a small masjid and I give on a regular basis through automatic withdrawal from my account. But I'm also very much aware that there is some mismanagement (not dishonesty, but just some unwise choices in my opinion) that I don't agree with so I limit how much I give and instead I give in other ways, such as in my time and some of the supplies that are needed in the Masjid. The presidents of all masjids should be elected by general consensus, but this rarely takes place. And there should be term limits on the position of president.
Profit may be halal, but turning the faith into a business isn’t. A masjid is an amanat and should be governed as such. A masjid cannot be used as a business to generate profits for an owner. Leave the prosperity gospel to the Christians, it has no place in Islam.
Well lots of Muslims sell books, clothing, halal things, and then recorded video courses. Shuyukh can get five figures for giving speeches at nonprofit masajid. Some of the profiting from faith stuff is quite garish looking prosperity gospel type stuff https://www.visionaireramadan.com/destiny?el=fbdu
Why is it different from Muslims personally profiting from the venue for prayer space where all these other people are also profiting in some way?
I guess my question is where do you draw the line?
We begin by drawing it at turning masajid into profit generators for private owners. The nations who came before us were condemned for this. This is what the Pharisees from Banu Israel did and Allah cursed them for this amongst other crimes. For the other examples you give, it requires ijtihad, but I will say many who are involved in such a livlihood may be seen to be doing good but with Allah lies the judgement. It is good that you are raising these questions because they need to be answered. Unfortunately I can only answer a part of them and even my answers raise more questions. I think volumes could be written on this topic alone.
Personal benefit is a fuzzy concept. Some of it violates tax law. Other benefits, being considered a community leader, mingling with the mayor or police chief at events, or even using it as a platform from which to launch a political campaign are all kind of normal.
One of the comments here points to the messes that can happen in election systems. Campaigns can be ugly, personal and can harm families and communities. I suppose it is possible to institute vetting and ethics rules, but for a big enough organization Muslim leaders playing dirty is an inherent risk?
I dont think it matters. For profit or non-profit when we donate its for a specific purpose. If that purpose is to keep the masjid going, if it continues to be an asset to the community it doesn't matter if it's a for profit. In fact I think we need more for profit organizations.
I replied with the below to another comment:
Profit may be halal, but turning the faith into a business isn’t. A masjid is an amanat and should be governed as such. A masjid cannot be used as a business to generate profits for an owner. Leave the prosperity gospel to the Christians, it has no place in Islam. If you do, you need to re-examine your faith or your understanding of it.
You want the Masajid to be “for profit”?
How about succession? If the owner dies, and the children or widow want to turn the place into a giant car wash, your donations to help build the place goes to that, you okay with that?
I dont want - I wouldn't mind. It's no different than if a masjid runs out of funding or shuts down and becomes a church. It happens.
At the end of the day we donate for the sake of Allah. The benefits we reap from donating to a for profit masjid doesn't end there.